Ultra HD Blu-ray drives are FINALLY coming to the PC

Pioneer has teased that it has two Ultra HD Blu-ray drives coming to the PC, both in the usual 5.25-inch form factor, but there are some super strange PC requirements for 4K content to work.

First, you'll need Intel's new Kaby Lake-based processors - so your still awesome Core i7-6700K won't work, nor will that expensive Core i7-6950X, oh - and you'll need Windows 10. On top of that, you'll need a 4K monitor of course - and it has to have HDMI 2.0a and HDCP 2.2 support or it won't work.

On top of that, there's only a single Ultra HD Blu-ray playback software package available, and that's from CyberLink in the form of their latest version of PowerDVD - which Pioneer includes in the box. There'll also be CyberLink's other software included, with PowerDirector 14, PowerProducer 5.5, Power 2 Go 8, InstantBurn5, PowerBackup 2.5, MediaShow 6, Label Print 2.5, PhotoDirector 5 LE and a trial version of Media Espresso 6.5.

As for the pricing and availability, Pioneer has said that the initial back will reach Japan in late February, and in other markets soon after. Pioneer hasn't made pricing details available, and CyberLink will also have retail copies of their Ultra HD Blu-ray supported version of PowerDVD, but no dates on that yet either.